Conflict Management Warnborough College

Overview

Key facts

Learn how to manage it through effective communication, active listening, and problem solving. Develop your ability to use facilitation, negotiation or mediation in group situations to acheive win-win solutions.

In many conflict situations we can choose how to behave and how to respond. It is well worth reflecting on some of the most common ways of handling conflict because this will increase our awareness of possible responses. It will also enable us to check out our usual reactions and consider whether they are appropriate for what we are trying to achieve in a particular situation.

There are five main styles which can be adopted to handle conflict: competing, soothing, avoiding, compromising, or joint problem solving.

Competing is assertive and uncooperative. It involves an individual pursuing their own concerns at another person?s expense. This is a power oriented mode in which one uses whatever power seems appropriate to win one’s own position, one’s ability to argue, one’s rank, or economic sanctions. Competing might mean standing up for your rights, defending a position which you believe is correct, or simply trying to win.

Soothing is unassertive and cooperative; often tantamount to giving in. A soothing individual attempts to preserve the relationship at all costs, emphasising areas of agreement and failing to confront thorny issues.

Avoiding is unassertive and uncooperative. The individual does not immediately pursue his/her own concerns or those of the other person. He/she does not address the conflict. Avoiding might take the form of diplomatically sidestepping the issue, postponing the issue till a later/better time or simply withdrawing from a threatening position.

Compromising is intermediate between assertiveness and cooperativeness. The objective is to find expedient, mutually acceptable solutions which partially satisfy both parties, it falls in the middle ground between competing and accommodating. It addresses issues more directly than avoiding, but it doesn’t explore it in as much depth as in joint problem solving. Compromising might mean “splitting the difference”, exchanging concessions, or speaking a quick middle ground position.

Joint Problem Solving is both assertive and cooperative – the opposite of avoiding. It involves an attempt to work with the other person to find some mutually satisfying solution. It means digging into an issue to identify the underlying concerns of the two individuals and to find an alternative which meets both sets of concerns. Joint problem solving might take the form of exploring a disagreement, in order to learn from each other’s insights.

Aims of the Conflict Management course from Warnborough College

• Describe the nature of human conflict and ways to manage it.

• Explain the importance of listening when dealing with conflict situations, and appreciate different listening techniques.

• Define negotiation and discuss the process of negotiation

• Define mediation and discuss the process of mediation

• Define facilitation and discuss the process of facilitation

• Discuss problems that may arise through negotiation, in particular, balance of power and its connotations

• Explain the importance of working in groups as a means of learning how to deal with group conflicts

• Explain ways of understanding and dealing with different types of crisis.